Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Fleet Update

[DVee8]

Just now, Schaefft said:

I was removing anything in the photos indicating that it was, but yes😂 Such a nice dude!

I thought he had gone, I used him years ago when I had my Jags.

[DVee8]

A great bloke,Is his son Colin still there?

[DVee8]

Just now, DVee8 said:

A great bloke,Is his son Colin still there?

If you need anything collected, he's not far from me.

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

I thought he had gone, I used him years ago when I had my Jags.

Apparently he's now starting to concentrate more on his own cars. He's got plenty of stuff to sell, theres money to be made there. He's got some health related issues with his hands atm as well so no more wrenching going on I'd assume. I haven't seen his son so no clue!

[Noel Tidybeard]

this is a 3610

what you have is the legend that is the 6310i

[Dave_Q]

Mainstream boomer cosplay is an excellent description of some parts of the UK American car scene.

[Schaefft]

You are right, I didn't quite remember the i was missing. Newest phone I could make work in the car, and quite a pretty design I think.

[Schaefft]

Not much progress recently, however after reading @Gerrymcd's experience with his ultra cheapo "Maxspeedingrods" ebay coilovers I decided to go ahead and got myself a set for the Celsior. The total including shipping came to an incredible £132.80.

For a brand new set of coilovers.

Now I'm not expecting much from them but there is (theoretically) a two year warranty. And considering that the car is currently sitting in a rather impractical lowrider stance where the ass is on the ground and the front is in the air, I think it's hard to lose here. I'll see if I can fit them sometime in the next year, hopefully all bolts will come lose without too much trouble.

Just look how shiny they are! To keep them that way I'll make sure to apply plenty of grease.

I'm still trying to get a set of front abs sensors as well. Naturally they are made from unobtainium and usually seized to the knuckle if you wanna get some from a breaker...

[GMcD]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

Not much progress recently, however after reading @Gerrymcd's experience with his ultra cheapo "Maxspeedingrods" ebay coilovers I decided to go ahead and got myself a set for the Celsior. The total including shipping came to an incredible £132.80.

For a brand new set of coilovers.

Now I'm not expecting much from them but there is (theoretically) a two year warranty.

Fair play to them. I'm getting a squeek from the rear nearside damper/mount. They are sending me out a replacment. Which is more than I expected given the price paid.

If you need a hand give us a shout, they are pretty easy to fit, rusty bolts aside. 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Gerrymcd said:

Fair play to them. I'm getting a squeek from the rear nearside damper/mount. They are sending me out a replacment. Which is more than I expected given the price paid.

If you need a hand give us a shout, they are pretty easy to fit, rusty bolts aside. 

Did you have to send one of the shocks back, or the whole set, or none at all?

[GMcD]

Nope, just sending me a new one.👍

[Schaefft]

11 minutes ago, Gerrymcd said:

Nope, just sending me a new one.👍

Nice, that sounds promising!

[Schaefft]

Things here are starting to heat up again after the Christmas break. I was able collect my Mercedes parts order from before Christmas. While I'll let a professional do the replacement of the springs in the back I also got my radio aerial gaskets for the back. This is what they are supposed to look like:

Turns out I still cannot install mine as a part of one of them is missing, the painted aerial cone usually comes with a rubber ring inside of it, you can't buy it from Mercedes (the cone you can but it would ideally be painted, the gasket isnt a separate part) so I will need to make one using rubber washers from the plumbing supplier:

I did get the straps for the bumper covers in the front though, the last bit to complete the bumper after having had it repainted, and they are quite a clever design as they are strap and clip in one! It also makes me wonder why someone drilled a hole into one of the covers and used a ziptie instead as these straps were cheap and easily available🤦‍♂️

Soo much nicer. I'll paint the headlight wipers and crusty hood when its getting a little warmer again.

The bigger news are that suspension work has started on the Celsior! I only intended to remove the rear parcel shelf this weekend to make life easier once I start installing the coilovers (I was waiting for my lithium grease order), turns out removing the old shocks was an absolute breeze. The rear springs were so entirely ruined, I could litterally just compress the shock by hand and lift it out. And the rear ones were supposed to be the hard ones!

Utter destruction:

Despite their state, I think the shock absorbers and top mount are still useable, would be a bit of a shame to throw hard to find parts away if they have some use to someone.

Also to show how much expertise and care has gone into this car before I got it, take a look at this and have guess whats wrong here. This was before I touched anything.

I'll prepare the coilovers the coming days so I can throw them on the car next weekend. Considering the state this car has been in for such a long time, I cannot wait to drive it again and see what difference it'll make. Considering the car didnt have springs, I'd say it'll be rather noticeable.😂

[Schaefft]

Some late night rod lubing. I've tried to match both sides for both the front and back struts in length, the spring pads are off by about a mm from the top, close enough. The instructions said to not move it but that's pretty much impossible considering I had to remove the top mounts and springs to lub that top mount. Considering it's just a rod going through a rubber bush I'm not sure if there was much of a point but who knows. Of course I have no clue how high or low the car will sit with the current setting but I guess I'll find out on Saturday!

Might even take it a step further and use a zip tie to hold these bellows in place!

[GMcD]

Did you get special edition ones with instructions in the box?

Don't make the mistake I made and cut the bottom zip tie on the shock mount until it's just about ready to sit in its perch. I cut mine whilst on the bench and one of the fookers rolled under my shelving. Took bloody ages to find it!

Your ls400 looks to be in lovely nick. 

[gm]

@Schaefft

any interest to you ? looks to be your sort of thing

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/209412774201829

seats certainly look comfy

 

[Schaefft]

10 hours ago, Gerrymcd said:

Did you get special edition ones with instructions in the box?

Don't make the mistake I made and cut the bottom zip tie on the shock mount until it's just about ready to sit in its perch. I cut mine whilst on the bench and one of the fookers rolled under my shelving. Took bloody ages to find it!

Your ls400 looks to be in lovely nick. 

Instructions are more like a leaflet of adverts with 3 points of instructions and no images... And the photos might fool you, someone scratched the hell out of the paint when it was still in the previous owners possession, I'm actually looking into replacing half of the panels to avoid a respray.

@gmIt's been for sale for a little while now, unfortunately more or less worthless with a slipping transmission. You can get these for little more and without serious issues. Edit: looks like it's only 400 quid now, problem still the same though, such a shame.

[Six-cylinder]

12 hours ago, gm said:

@Schaefft

any interest to you ? looks to be your sort of thing

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/209412774201829

seats certainly look comfy

 

 

 

Mrs6c wants one of these but that one needs too much work.

[cort1977]

On 12/18/2020 at 7:51 AM, Schaefft said:

Not much progress recently, however after reading @Gerrymcd's experience with his ultra cheapo "Maxspeedingrods" ebay coilovers I decided to go ahead and got myself a set for the Celsior. The total including shipping came to an incredible £132.80.

 

Will see how you go with these with great interest.  Just looked in to a set for the mustang and it comes out at a slightly unfeasible 209 quid.  Very tempted to get a set even if they are just an experiment really.

[gm]

Those maxspeedingrods are popular with the the mx5 boys but get mixed reviews - it seems they need to be looked after or the adjusters are prone to seizing. Some of the Exocet guys have used them too but find theme to be very low, even on the highest setting. Spring rates are also a bit too firm for such a light car, maybe less of a concern with a luxobarge  

[cort1977]

Found they had a discount code going (probably always do) so I thought 'screw it' and ordered them.  Weight is not an issue with the mustang and will heed the corrosion warnings and see how they go.  

Apologies for the thread hijack @Schaefft

[Schaefft]

No worries. I've got about half a ton of lithium grease on the threads, theres no chance in hell these will seize anytime soon, especially with the little usage they'll see.

[Schaefft]

Managed to get the rears in today. Was a bit of a pita as, unlike the Lexus top mounts, the studs on top of the struts weren't tapered. I only managed to get the passenger side in by grinding down one of them, doesn't affect rigidity obviously. As you can see below my first try turned the car into a monster truck so I tried to set them at the lowest height possible, which apparently is only slightly lower than stock.🤔

I'll do the fronts tomorrow. Hopefully they'll all keep settling a little which should bring it down to a reasonable height.

[hairnet]

any hot yank action at the mo?

 

[Schaefft]

Not much, the '95 Mark VIII is locked away in storage, so is one of the Auroras. No progress on the one in Germany, the region it's in is in lockdown as well. The black Mark VIII is waiting for a wheel bearing which I have here, the Celsior has priority though, after that the Bmw is next since it's MOT is coming up.

In another turn of events, ebay just popped up a set of reasonably priced, actual quality coilovers I've been waiting for for about 2 years at least. Naturally this is happening on the day I put these on. If anyone happens to be around Milton Keynes and wants to pick them up for me (it's collection only unfortunately), I would very much appreciate it! I'll post it in the shitly thread as well.

[Schaefft]

Well today was fun NOT. I thought I'd just pop out the remains of the front shocks that were poorly welded solid because the previous owner had to with the front springs missing. That turned to be quite a pita as it's hard to compress a strut with a solid piece of metal instead of a spring. The lower mounting bolt was seized up pretty well as well so I actually used my gas powered soldering iron as a torch (Dremel continues to save the day once again) and heated up the nut until my impact could finally get it off. I ended up removing the shock while leaving the upper mount in place (not before trying to take a saw to it all). 

I installed the front shock which was fortunately much easier than the back, lowered the car and bam, the car was literally slammed in the front. This was the moment I started to wonder whether it really made sense that the softer, shorter spring is in the much heavier front section of the car while the longer, stiffer spring is in the back.

Well, considering that both the factory springs and proper quality coilovers would indeed have the stiffer springs in the front I just wanted to see what would happen if I put the rear struts (which make the car sit fairly high despite being at the lowest setting) on the front and vice versa.

But not before noticing that the concrete pad the car jack was sitting on was literally crumpling to pieces. Since I knew that this pad had various "qualities" of concrete (because why did I even expect this to be done properly back in the 60s) I wanted to move the car further back by half a meter and line up the jacking points with an area the jack wouldn't just sink into.

Of course the car ran out of petrol, not moving anywhere. So off I went to the petrol station to get some petrol.

Back at the car I was able to feed the thirsty Toyota V8 and in proper Toyota fashion it started without trouble after a few cranks.

The car was repositioned, jacked up, strut removed, rear one was now too long to fit the front. Considering the lower strut mount/body is more or less identical except in length I just swapped the shorter mount of the front onto the rear strut assembly with the firmer, longer spring and installed it in the front. I have not installed the longer shock mount in the rear but don't see a reason why it wouldn't fit.

The car is now sitting at a reasonable height with lots more adjustability and more sensible spring rates for front and back. My guess is that Maxspeedingrods are complete morons and confused the springs, and then doubled down on it and actually stated it to be exactly the way it's supposed to be. I'll find out whether it's them or me who's wrong next weekend when I do the same on the other side, in any case this hasn't been the most pleasant experience.😬

[cort1977]

Interesting, maybe they didn't understand or didn't want to lose face and admit they were wrong?

Good to see they are proper low, if cheap coilovers can't do that much then they're fairly pointless.

[Six-cylinder]

On 1/16/2021 at 7:39 PM, Schaefft said:

In another turn of events, ebay just popped up a set of reasonably priced, actual quality coilovers I've been waiting for for about 2 years at least. Naturally this is happening on the day I put these on. If anyone happens to be around Milton Keynes and wants to pick them up for me (it's collection only unfortunately), I would very much appreciate it! I'll post it in the shitly thread as well.

Are you still looking for coilovers to be collected from Milton Keynes?

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

Are you still looking for coilovers to be collected from Milton Keynes?

Yes, the seller will send me more photos tomorrow, if everything is fine I'd buy them.

[Six-cylinder]

45 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Yes, the seller will send me more photos tomorrow, if everything is fine I'd buy them.

Ok let me know what you need.